Justice was served on Wednesday nights in the Hampton
Roads Fall League at the Boo Williams Sportsplex.The John Marshall Justices from the Central
Region made the weekly trek in September and October to take on some of the
best competition the Eastern Region has to offer and was the last one standing
out of 16 teams, winning 17 of the 18 games they played.

John Marshall defeated Green Run 52-48 in
double-overtime of the Fall League Championship.They trailed the entire game until Brian White's basket at the buzzer tied
the score and forced overtime.White hit
the game-winning basket in the semifinals of the Fall League playoffs to help
the Justices edge King's Fork, 61-59.

"It's a big sacrifice that our parents, our players and
our coaches made every single week, but at the end of the day, it's worth it,"
said John Marshall Fall League Coach Michael
Blackwell."We did it as a team, as
a unit.Our key thing every single day
and every single week is to stay hungry.You never get full off of any game, any quarter and as long as this team
stays hungry, we're going to position ourselves to accomplish our goal at the end
of the day."

White led the way in the Championship with 18 points
and 11 rebounds.To go with White's
scoring inside and outside the paint as well as his rebounding, the Justices
got stellar guard play throughout, most notably from seniors Dominique Terry and Gee Dean-McBride.Terry provided them with perimeter shooting,
while Dean-McBride pushed the ball up the court and got into the teeth of the
defense.

Dean-McBride scored 11 of his 14 points after half-time.Terry chipped in 12, nailing big shots all
Fall League long and proving to be a zone buster against teams that didn't go
man-to-man against them.

"For the last two months since school has started it's
just been about working together, continuity and working as a team," Blackwell
added."We're obviously not as talented
as some of the state contenders are, but we know if we work together as 15
players, stick together, we're going to accomplish a lot more than what people
think we are.We want to be the last
time playing as far as AAA at the Siegel Center, and our goal is a state
title."

Green Run, which beat Great Bridge 48-38 in the other
semifinal, relied heavily on its terrific backcourt tandem of Lequan Thomas and Tyler Blount.Blount had 20
points against Great Bridge and followed that up with 14 versus John
Marshall.Thomas consistently used his
quickness to get to the basket or penetrate and find an open man, finishing
with 11 points and four assists in the Championship.

Giving the Stallions a lift in the front-court was
freshman Sterling Carrington with
nine points as he battled a D-1 talent in White (Citadel commit) quite well for
someone who has yet to play a game on the varsity level.

Even after the senior trio of White, Dean-McBride and
Terry that are the headliners for John Marshall, they have a solid rotation of underclassmen
that'll play vital roles for them this year and in the future.They include 6-foot-7 sophomore Nate Williams, junior guard Quaman Burton, sophomore guard Taqqi Muhammad and freshman guard Jeremy Sheppard.

Clearly, the Justices have a good enough mixture to be
a factor in both the Central Region and on a state scale at the Group AAA
level.That's even after seeing a pair
of 20-plus point per game scorers graduate in Jestin
Lewis (Wallace State CC in Alabama) and Willie Mangum (Western Nebraska
CC).This year's squad may be more
balanced in the long run.

"With the 70 points per game we graduated from last
year, it basically came from three players.For other teams when they defended us, that let them focus on the three
players," Blackwell noted.

"This year we're focusing on involving all five players
on the floor on the offensive end.That
was our goal in this Fall League, and I think we accomplished that and it
showed every week that we came down here with balanced scoring.Our motto is to stay ready so we don't have
to get ready, and that's kind of what our guys have been doing."